Vodafone New Zealand and network specialist Ciena® Corporation today announced the completion of a significant network expansion to deliver low-latency “express” capacity between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

At 1,500 kilometres across land and under sea, the expansion of 100Gb/s technology connecting these three centres is believed to be one of the longest 100Gb/s networks globally, and a first in New Zealand.

Vodafone’s Head of Networks, Tony Baird, says the expansion will feed Kiwis’ growing hunger for data.

“Data is the fastest growing segment of our business. This 100Gb/s network expansion is part of our continued investment in the Vodafone SuperNet™ to support high speed data for our customers, and deliver a consistently excellent data experience.”

“Ciena’s technology allows us to deliver the performance and reliability our customers need, while allowing us to scale up the systems we need to prepare for future demand.

“Not only are we transporting an unprecedented volume of traffic over long distances, our network is also evolving to deliver an expanded set of fast, reliable and high-capacity services – from data centre and the cloud, to mobile backhaul and machine-to-machine connectivity.”

The upgrade required no re-engineering or interruption to service due to the robust operation of Ciena’s 100Gb/s technology running alongside existing 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s channels. This greatly improves the efficiencies of Vodafone’s high-speed network, opening the door to new applications and additional capacity as the network evolves and expands.

Anthony McLachlan, vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, Ciena explains: “Service providers across the globe are looking to improve their network efficiency and reliability while also expanding capacity to meet surging demand from a new breed of smartphone and tablet users.

“Vodafone is an excellent example of a company with the forward vision to deploy network technologies that suit their present-day requirements, and also lay the groundwork to support future expansion and network services at speeds that reach 100Gb/s and beyond.”

Last year, Vodafone connected New Zealand’s first 100Gb/s data network by linking two of its Auckland data centres.

About CienaCiena is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with OPn, its approach for building open next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/ciena. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena Investors Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 11, 2013. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.